What makes you think they are saving you money? A variable pricing model would mean some music would be sold for less than $.99. That would mean a new band trying to make their name in the industry could sell their music for half price and have a chance to actually compete with the more well known bands. But as it is, Jobs has fixed the price at $.99, which has almost certainly cost the consumers a lot. I hate to break it to you, but Mr Jobs is part of that "greedy corporate america" you mentioned.
The irony is that just a few years ago, it was the record labels who were being accused of price fixing (and yes, I am well aware that the MAP policy was there to benefit the small record stores and not the record labels, but that doesn't change the fact that the record labels were the ones who were blamed).
Your exact words were "An insult is never on the mark". Saying Hitler is a jackass is insulting Hitler. By your logic, that means the statement that "Hitler is a jackass" cannot be 'on the mark'. Which is obviously not true.
Sorry if this goes against everything you learned from Barney the Dinosaur.
"An insult is never on the mark. How hard can that be to understand."
So if I said Hitlter was a jackass, that means he was really a nice guy? Come on, are you now saying that everything bad that is said about someone must be false? Are you really that naive? Or that stupid?
"Maybe you should stop trying to read between the lines what I write, and read what I write instead!"
Maybe you should stop trying to write meaningless dibble and instead try to participate in a meaningful discussion. Sorry for assuming that your statements actually meant something.
I assure you, I can think of many insults that have been used against people that were entirely on the mark. Or are you trying to say that Firefox developers are these holy people who never do anything wrong, and that any insults against them is off base?
"If you think it is time for a fork, well: fork it. Maintain your fork, do a couple of releases, and then we'll talk about bloat, leaks or whatever else you want."
Are you trying to argue that it is impossible to maintain an application that is not bloated and does not leak memory? If so, I can assure you that it is very possible, and there are many projects out there that fall within that category.
Considering how often Firefox 1.5 crashes or leaks memory, I'm not sure that insult is all that off base.
Look, I'm sure there are many out there working on fixing these bugs in Firefox, but please don't tell the direction of the project is to make a lightweight, stable browser that got its power from optional extensions like the phoenix/firebird browsers I used several years ago. Those are gone and in their place is a new browser that is approaching the bloat of the origional mozilla project.
Maybe it is time for another fork...
As to this article, I suppose you could interpret it as a new focus on stability instead of features. I, on the other hand, interpret it as evidence that firefox developers have just spent a lot of time working on a feature that was so buggy that they couldn't get it to work and so unessential that pulling it was a viable option. In other words, bloat.
Then they will just delete the part where the encoded name is printed and replace it with a line that prints their name in plaintext. Remember, the built in TI-82 programming language is not that complex. There is a limit on what you can easily do with it...
"Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment"
Like hell they do. Every mammal on the planet (hell every animal on the planet) grows as fast as it can until natural factors prevent them from expanding any further. Some grow slowly level off as they hit their limit, others grow fast and zoom right past their limits, before undergoing a massive population drop (I want to call these r-type and k-type growth, but its been some time since biology and I don't remember which is which, or even if those are the right names). They don't just instinctively hit an equilibrium, thats just dumb.
Humans have hit these limits in the past, several times. Recently we have expanded our environment's carrying capacity (much like when a rat species makes its way to a new continent) and our population is in a growth cycle. Once we hit our limit (which we will do at some point), we will either level off or undergo population cuts, just like everything else. And btw, viruses will hit an equilibrium and stop growing as well, just like every other living thing on the planet.
And yes, I know you were just quoting a popular movie, but I don't care.
"I doubt it. 99% of the kids with those calculators only care about how to get "games" to run on them."
I know back when I was in high school and the TI-82s had just come out, most kids just took the games I wrote and changed the title screen to show their name as the author, not mine. Does that count as programming?
"And what makes you think the very same thing won't happen with a "national" number? Every government institution in the US uses the SSN for its intended purpose, that of providing a means of identifying financial records. It is the commercial entities that have abused it not the government. By law, the SSN is protected by the Privacy Act and every government agency knows this."
The government would have to make it clear that this information is as public as someone's name. Of course there would still be the occasional company that doesn't care (the other day I was able to reset the password to some sensitive information by only knowing something like my birthday and home address), but for the most part companies would refrain from using it.
And actually, your assertion that all government institutions only use it for financial records is false, at least if you include state governments. Some states (I know Virginia, for instance) use it as the default driver's license number.
"First, it puts a burden on the state, and more importantly the underpaid state worker, the burden of verification of the applicant's data."
Are you saying the feds are better paid and thus will do a better job at recognizing fraud? Because if so, I've got to take you on a trip to the Patent Office...
The big problems with drivers licenses is that every state has different standards (as you mentioned) and the lack of a public identification number (as mentioned before, they have ID numbers, but often just reuse the social).
"It goes deeper than that. Most Americans are oblivious to the amount of data already available on them and would revolt if they really knew."
Then they would realize that without this data, they would be unable to recieve (relatively) fast medical care, would never be able to recieve a loan, and would have to pay for all purchases using cash. When all that information came out, they would brush it off and go back to the couch.
"The Nazis used this sort of data to round up Jews, Homersexuals and Race Traitors and send them to the ovens."
Yeah, they also used trains to transport them. Does that mean we should abolish Amtrak?
"On a less shrill note, they won't stop fraud or do anything else they claim to better than what we already have, so all that's left is abuse."
There is one thing they could do. ID cards would generally be associated with some sort of unique ID number which would give us a way to identify people without relying on SSNs, which have been ruined by confusions over whether or not they should be treated as confidential material (and when someone assumes they should be when they are not and starts using them to verify someone's identity, we have an easy path to identity theft). I know people do not like the idea of the big bad government treating them as a number, but the fact is in this increasingly digitalized world, this is something we desperately need.
"I'm beginning to understand why Wikipedia is generally banned from use in undergraduate research writing. Seems that there's more than a few issues of trust that need to be resolved."
That, and the little fact that encyclopedias in general are not satisfactory for research papers. Please, take a trip to your local library. Or even better, your university library. There you can get some real research materials. The wikipedia exists so you can find some fast information about a variety of subjects. It is not there for writing research papers.
""Just as plenty of complex mathematical problems are solved (and published) by those in the business world."
I don't think so."
Wow, thank you for your wondeful insight. Isn't it great that/. is filled with anonymous cowards such as yourself who are there to lend us their unique knowledge as to how the world works? Just one question, how do you then explain all the publications made by compaies like IBM, Bell Labs, and yes, even the mother of all that is evil, Microsoft? I'm sure you have a great explanation, after all you are obviously in academia and of course all the ignorant and arrogant jackasses of the world (which of course you would be amoung if corporations such as these are indeed publishing research) are all confined to the evil world of corporations. I'm just really eager to hear this magical explanation that will refute all this real world evidence to the contrary of your claim.
Well, according to this, their known range extends from Angola to the Congo River Basin. So no, they are not confined to just one country or territory, but are spread out amoung several countries. And considering the conflict in that region, that list could easily change any day.
I would say going onto land to hunt insects (as opposed to merely hunting insects from the water or merely going on land) makes this interesting. No, its not a halt the presses type of news, but that doesn't keep it from being an interesting article.
"But he said something else that really underlined for me the disconnect between Academia and the business world"
And your entire post underlines one for me. Believe it or not, the academic world is full of plenty of people just like your friend. Just as plenty of complex mathematical problems are solved (and published) by those in the business world. This isn't a business vs academia thing, this is just an example of an arrogant hack.
"Imagine the state of our theoretical knowledge in mathematics and computer science if, even in Academia, every discovery of a new algorithm or idea resulted in a patent application, and was jealously guarded as a secret which could produce profit."
No, thats not how patents work. Patents don't get jealously guarded as secrets, they are published. The whole point of patents is to encourage people to publish things instead of keeping them as trade secrets. Besides, most developments that could be considered theoretical would get published anyways, even by the 'evil' profit hungry corporations. Patents are generally used for more practical developments, simply because companies wouldn't really benefit at all from patenting a purely theoretical development.
Well there was this one crazy guy named Einstein who argued that gravity, as described by sir Isaac Newton, was not the force that held the universe together. Unfortunately he and his "theory of relativity" has been pushed into textbooks by the radical right...
But..
WHAT IF WE DESTROY THE HOROSCOPE OF A RUSSIAN ASTROLOGIST?
I mean will any scientific breakthroughts we may gain from this be worth it if someone out there doesn't meet that tall, dark stranger asking for advice but seeking something much deeper? Will you be able to live with that guilt?
There is a big difference between those who question the plausibility of a particular part of a scientific theory and advocates of "Intelligent Design". The former are a needed part of the scientific community, no matter how much support the general theory has. After all, if people didn't have questions regarding the current models of how life first evolved, we would not have this research to begin with. If Einstein didn't have the balls to question Newton's well accepted model of the universe, he would have never have developed his theory of relativity. If Oswald Avery had not committed scientific heresy by demonstrating that it is DNA, not proteins as previously thought, that held inheritable genetic information, researchers like the ones in this article would not be able to prove anything because they would be working with the wrong material. Science needs and thrives on doubt and criticism.
Intelligent design, on the other hand, is a catch phrase used by a movement that attempts to capitalize on this fact to provide a renewed belief in some other theory on the origin of life (of course they could not be talking about creationism, as if you apply the same form of doubt they hold on evolution onto creationism, it wouldn't fare all that well...).
"If the right lane is going the speed limit, then the lane isn't yet saturated with traffic. So there isn't any need to use the left lane."
Except that never happens. Highways get heavy traffic, and if everyone used the right lane for travel and the left for nothing but passing opportunities, my commute home would take an hour instead of the normal 15 minutes.
"I think most people would like others to keep right out of courtesy, not neccesarily due to legal reasons. Just because something is legal doesn't mean you should do it."
In my list of things that drivers do that piss me off, driving in the left lane for extended periods of time falls way behind things like tailgaiting, turning without signaling, turning into a turn lane way too early, running red lights, etc.
Well thats great if you have a protractor and a ruler handy and don't mind getting out to do some measuring before steps 1, 3, and 4. Otherwise you need to have a feeling for how far you need to go, what angle you need to go in, etc., all of which requires practice. And even if you get good at it, your car still isn't safe when a guy with an SUV tries to get in a space just big enough for a sedan right in front of you. Since I like my car, I prefer just parking in the back, away from all the other cars. I get to keep my distance, so no banged doors or other problems, and as a bonus I get some extra exercise from walking to and from my car.
"If you can't master this after about three attempts, let's just say I would recommend a nice icepick lobotomy."
Its what happens in the first two attepts that worries me...
No, according to Apple Computer that agreement covered only physical media like CDs or tapes. Apple Records has a different interpretation. This settlement was reached long before the downloading songs was a common method of music distribution, so this concept was not specified in the settlement.
Slashdot Mirror
The irony is that just a few years ago, it was the record labels who were being accused of price fixing (and yes, I am well aware that the MAP policy was there to benefit the small record stores and not the record labels, but that doesn't change the fact that the record labels were the ones who were blamed).
You are kidding, right? Java is more difficult to deploy on linux than, say, .NET? Why, because you have to download a whole JVM?
Sorry if this goes against everything you learned from Barney the Dinosaur.
So if I said Hitlter was a jackass, that means he was really a nice guy? Come on, are you now saying that everything bad that is said about someone must be false? Are you really that naive? Or that stupid?
"Maybe you should stop trying to read between the lines what I write, and read what I write instead!"
Maybe you should stop trying to write meaningless dibble and instead try to participate in a meaningful discussion. Sorry for assuming that your statements actually meant something.
I assure you, I can think of many insults that have been used against people that were entirely on the mark. Or are you trying to say that Firefox developers are these holy people who never do anything wrong, and that any insults against them is off base?
"If you think it is time for a fork, well: fork it. Maintain your fork, do a couple of releases, and then we'll talk about bloat, leaks or whatever else you want."
Are you trying to argue that it is impossible to maintain an application that is not bloated and does not leak memory? If so, I can assure you that it is very possible, and there are many projects out there that fall within that category.
Look, I'm sure there are many out there working on fixing these bugs in Firefox, but please don't tell the direction of the project is to make a lightweight, stable browser that got its power from optional extensions like the phoenix/firebird browsers I used several years ago. Those are gone and in their place is a new browser that is approaching the bloat of the origional mozilla project.
Maybe it is time for another fork...
As to this article, I suppose you could interpret it as a new focus on stability instead of features. I, on the other hand, interpret it as evidence that firefox developers have just spent a lot of time working on a feature that was so buggy that they couldn't get it to work and so unessential that pulling it was a viable option. In other words, bloat.
Then they will just delete the part where the encoded name is printed and replace it with a line that prints their name in plaintext. Remember, the built in TI-82 programming language is not that complex. There is a limit on what you can easily do with it...
Like hell they do. Every mammal on the planet (hell every animal on the planet) grows as fast as it can until natural factors prevent them from expanding any further. Some grow slowly level off as they hit their limit, others grow fast and zoom right past their limits, before undergoing a massive population drop (I want to call these r-type and k-type growth, but its been some time since biology and I don't remember which is which, or even if those are the right names). They don't just instinctively hit an equilibrium, thats just dumb.
Humans have hit these limits in the past, several times. Recently we have expanded our environment's carrying capacity (much like when a rat species makes its way to a new continent) and our population is in a growth cycle. Once we hit our limit (which we will do at some point), we will either level off or undergo population cuts, just like everything else. And btw, viruses will hit an equilibrium and stop growing as well, just like every other living thing on the planet.
And yes, I know you were just quoting a popular movie, but I don't care.
I know back when I was in high school and the TI-82s had just come out, most kids just took the games I wrote and changed the title screen to show their name as the author, not mine. Does that count as programming?
The government would have to make it clear that this information is as public as someone's name. Of course there would still be the occasional company that doesn't care (the other day I was able to reset the password to some sensitive information by only knowing something like my birthday and home address), but for the most part companies would refrain from using it.
And actually, your assertion that all government institutions only use it for financial records is false, at least if you include state governments. Some states (I know Virginia, for instance) use it as the default driver's license number.
"First, it puts a burden on the state, and more importantly the underpaid state worker, the burden of verification of the applicant's data."
Are you saying the feds are better paid and thus will do a better job at recognizing fraud? Because if so, I've got to take you on a trip to the Patent Office...
The big problems with drivers licenses is that every state has different standards (as you mentioned) and the lack of a public identification number (as mentioned before, they have ID numbers, but often just reuse the social).
"It goes deeper than that. Most Americans are oblivious to the amount of data already available on them and would revolt if they really knew."
Then they would realize that without this data, they would be unable to recieve (relatively) fast medical care, would never be able to recieve a loan, and would have to pay for all purchases using cash. When all that information came out, they would brush it off and go back to the couch.
Yeah, they also used trains to transport them. Does that mean we should abolish Amtrak?
"On a less shrill note, they won't stop fraud or do anything else they claim to better than what we already have, so all that's left is abuse."
There is one thing they could do. ID cards would generally be associated with some sort of unique ID number which would give us a way to identify people without relying on SSNs, which have been ruined by confusions over whether or not they should be treated as confidential material (and when someone assumes they should be when they are not and starts using them to verify someone's identity, we have an easy path to identity theft). I know people do not like the idea of the big bad government treating them as a number, but the fact is in this increasingly digitalized world, this is something we desperately need.
If you have to buy a brand new computer to even start up Vista, can't you just install Linux on your old one?
If you were to go during the commericials, that could be a violation of the channel's TOS and you would be banned from watching it.
That, and the little fact that encyclopedias in general are not satisfactory for research papers. Please, take a trip to your local library. Or even better, your university library. There you can get some real research materials. The wikipedia exists so you can find some fast information about a variety of subjects. It is not there for writing research papers.
I don't think so."
Wow, thank you for your wondeful insight. Isn't it great that /. is filled with anonymous cowards such as yourself who are there to lend us their unique knowledge as to how the world works? Just one question, how do you then explain all the publications made by compaies like IBM, Bell Labs, and yes, even the mother of all that is evil, Microsoft? I'm sure you have a great explanation, after all you are obviously in academia and of course all the ignorant and arrogant jackasses of the world (which of course you would be amoung if corporations such as these are indeed publishing research) are all confined to the evil world of corporations. I'm just really eager to hear this magical explanation that will refute all this real world evidence to the contrary of your claim.
Well, according to this, their known range extends from Angola to the Congo River Basin. So no, they are not confined to just one country or territory, but are spread out amoung several countries. And considering the conflict in that region, that list could easily change any day.
I would say going onto land to hunt insects (as opposed to merely hunting insects from the water or merely going on land) makes this interesting. No, its not a halt the presses type of news, but that doesn't keep it from being an interesting article.
And your entire post underlines one for me. Believe it or not, the academic world is full of plenty of people just like your friend. Just as plenty of complex mathematical problems are solved (and published) by those in the business world. This isn't a business vs academia thing, this is just an example of an arrogant hack.
"Imagine the state of our theoretical knowledge in mathematics and computer science if, even in Academia, every discovery of a new algorithm or idea resulted in a patent application, and was jealously guarded as a secret which could produce profit."
No, thats not how patents work. Patents don't get jealously guarded as secrets, they are published. The whole point of patents is to encourage people to publish things instead of keeping them as trade secrets. Besides, most developments that could be considered theoretical would get published anyways, even by the 'evil' profit hungry corporations. Patents are generally used for more practical developments, simply because companies wouldn't really benefit at all from patenting a purely theoretical development.
Well there was this one crazy guy named Einstein who argued that gravity, as described by sir Isaac Newton, was not the force that held the universe together. Unfortunately he and his "theory of relativity" has been pushed into textbooks by the radical right...
WHAT IF WE DESTROY THE HOROSCOPE OF A RUSSIAN ASTROLOGIST?
I mean will any scientific breakthroughts we may gain from this be worth it if someone out there doesn't meet that tall, dark stranger asking for advice but seeking something much deeper? Will you be able to live with that guilt?
Intelligent design, on the other hand, is a catch phrase used by a movement that attempts to capitalize on this fact to provide a renewed belief in some other theory on the origin of life (of course they could not be talking about creationism, as if you apply the same form of doubt they hold on evolution onto creationism, it wouldn't fare all that well...).
Except that never happens. Highways get heavy traffic, and if everyone used the right lane for travel and the left for nothing but passing opportunities, my commute home would take an hour instead of the normal 15 minutes.
"I think most people would like others to keep right out of courtesy, not neccesarily due to legal reasons. Just because something is legal doesn't mean you should do it."
In my list of things that drivers do that piss me off, driving in the left lane for extended periods of time falls way behind things like tailgaiting, turning without signaling, turning into a turn lane way too early, running red lights, etc.
Well thats great if you have a protractor and a ruler handy and don't mind getting out to do some measuring before steps 1, 3, and 4. Otherwise you need to have a feeling for how far you need to go, what angle you need to go in, etc., all of which requires practice. And even if you get good at it, your car still isn't safe when a guy with an SUV tries to get in a space just big enough for a sedan right in front of you. Since I like my car, I prefer just parking in the back, away from all the other cars. I get to keep my distance, so no banged doors or other problems, and as a bonus I get some extra exercise from walking to and from my car.
"If you can't master this after about three attempts, let's just say I would recommend a nice icepick lobotomy."
Its what happens in the first two attepts that worries me...
No, according to Apple Computer that agreement covered only physical media like CDs or tapes. Apple Records has a different interpretation. This settlement was reached long before the downloading songs was a common method of music distribution, so this concept was not specified in the settlement.
And if you asked that group about Apple Records, how many will respond thinking that it somehow involves Apple Computer?